Team Herald
MARGAO: Even after a Rs 50 crore renovation, the Kala Academy — Goa’s premier cultural venue — is facing basic operational failures, with no one willing to take responsibility. The recent light malfunction during a Marathi play has exposed not only technical flaws but also the absence of accountability among the agencies involved.
Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude on Thursday termed the incident — where stage lights flickered and halted the performance for 10 minutes — as “unfortunate,” but was quick to dismiss it as a technical fault rather than human error.
But in the aftermath, all parties — the Public Works Department (PWD), the Art and Culture Department, and the private agency that undertook the renovation of the Charles Correa-designed building — appear to be passing the buck, with no one stepping up to take ownership.
Addressing a press conference at Kala Academy, Gaude claimed the glitch stemmed from the system’s internal circuitry. “The entire lighting system in Dinanath Mangeshkar Kala Mandir uses LED lights by Canara, connected in a loop. A fault in even one light disrupts the entire chain,” he said. The system is currently under a defect liability period and maintenance is the contractor’s responsibility, he added.
The minister admitted that the production of the Marathi play Purush began smoothly but was disrupted around 4.40 pm when one of the stage lights began to flicker, triggering a cascade failure of the entire stage lighting. The crew attempted to fix it via the console but failed, forcing a 10-minute halt before halogen lights were used to resume the performance.
Gaude claimed the play’s set obstructed technicians from accessing the overhead battens to manually check each light — a task that would have required significant time.
Despite the public embarrassment, the minister insisted there was no negligence. “I’ve asked the Kala Academy’s Member Secretary to submit a detailed report,” he said, promising an upgrade of the existing lighting infrastructure.
Responding to criticism by actor Sharad Ponkshe, who was vocal after his play was disrupted, Gaude went on the offensive. “He took my name in the media just to malign me. These people have taken supari to spoil my image,” he alleged. Gaude also refuted Ponkshe’s claim that the production team did not use Kala Academy’s sound system. “If there’s a technical fault, it can be fixed. Why drag me into it?” he snapped.
The minister also said that a structural stability report of the building has been submitted, and only the inventory report is pending.